pelike, BCE, from
Heraclea, Lucania.
Early years According to the mythographer
Apollodorus, Chione, daughter of
Boreas and the heroine
Oreithyia, pregnant in secret with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean after giving birth to him. Poseidon however, looked after him and brought him to shore in
Ethiopia, where
Benthesikyme, a daughter of Poseidon and
Amphitrite, raised the child as their own. When he grew up, Eumolpus married one of Benthesikyme's two daughters by her Ethiopian husband. Eumolpus however, loved a different daughter and made an attempt upon her chastity, and was banished because of this. He went to
Thrace with his son
Ismarus (or Immaradus) who was married to the daughter of King
Tegyrius. Later on, Eumolpus was discovered in a plot to overthrow King Tegyrios and was obliged to take flight and fled to
Eleusis where he formed a friendship with the Eleusinians. In Eleusis, Eumolpus became one of the first priests of
Demeter and one of the founders of the
Eleusinian Mysteries. Pausanias relates a tradition that in the battle between the Eleusinians and Athenians, Erechtheus and Immaradus fell, and that thereupon peace was concluded on condition that the Eleusinians should in other respects be subject to Athens, but that they alone should have the celebration of their mysteries, and that Eumolpus and the daughters of Celeus should perform the customary sacrifices. His son,
Immaradus, was killed by King
Erechtheus. In some sources, Erechtheus having killed Eumolpus, Poseidon asked
Zeus to avenge his son's death. Zeus killed Erechtheus with a lightning bolt or Poseidon made the earth open up and swallow Erechtheus. According to Hyginus, Eumolpus came to Attica with a colony of Thracians, to claim the country as the property of his father, Poseidon. Eleusis lost the battle with Athens but the
Eumolpides and
Kerykes, two families of priests to Demeter, continued the Eleusinian mysteries. Eumolpus' youngest son,
Herald-Keryx who succeeded him in the priestly office, founded the lines.
Other feats Mythology regards Eumolpus as the founder of the Eleusinian mysteries, and as the first priest of Demeter and Dionysus; the goddess herself taught him,
Triptolemus,
Diocles, and
Celeus, the sacred rites, and he is therefore sometimes described as having himself invented the cultivation of the vine and of fruit-trees in general. Eumolpus was an excellent musician and singer; he played the
aulos and the
lyre. He won a musical contest in the funereal games of
Pelias. Eumolpus was regarded as an ancient priestly bard, poems and writings on the mysteries were fabricated and circulated at a later time under his name. One hexameter line of a Dionysiac hymn, ascribed to him, is preserved in Diodorus. The legends connected him also with Heracles, whom he is said to have instructed in music, or initiated into the mysteries. According to
Diogenes Laërtius Eumolpus was the father of
Musaeus. The tomb of Eumolpus was shown both at Eleusis and Athens. The difference in the traditions about Eumolpus led some of the ancients to suppose that two or three persons of that name ought to be distinguished. ==Legacy==